Grant Enfinger completed just 12 laps and finished next-to-last (39th) in last year’s season-opening ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway.

The only way for Enfinger to go was up.

And up he went indeed, as one year later, he rallied late in the race to capture Saturday’s season-opening Lucas Oil 200 at DIS.

“This is pretty special,” Enfinger said. “I felt like we were owed a few here. It was so heartbreaking a few years ago to lose some real close ones, so to get this one, Iowa and Mobile last year, really means the world to me.”

Enfinger essentially had a career season in just a part-time effort in 2013. While he started just eight of the season’s 21 races, he won two (Iowa and Mobile) and compiled four top-5 and five top-10 finishes.

Now, with hopes of running the entire ARCA schedule for just the second time in his career, the 29-year-old native of Fairhope, Ala., kicked things off in the best way possible.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” Enfinger said. “I think we’re going to be running for this thing (ARCA championship). I feel really strong about this team. We’re like the little engine that could, we have a lot of heart.”

Saturday’s finish was a far cry from his three previous starts at the legendary 2.5-mile high-banked track: 30th in 2010, ninth in 2011 and 39th in 2013.

“It means a lot to us,” team owner Howard Bixman said. “We work real hard every day. This is for my dad, he went in the hospital yesterday.”

Enfinger’s win marked the first time Ford has won an ARCA race at Daytona since Ryan Newman did so in 2001.

He also became the 37th different winner in 51 season-opening ARCA races at Daytona.

While Enfinger celebrated, Frank Kimmel once again left Daytona frustrated. While the series’ winningest driver (80 in 470 starts) finished runner-up at Daytona for the third time in his career, he came up short once more.

“We overachieved a lot today,” said Kimmel, who has seeking his 11th ARCA championship this season. “The guys worked so hard but we just didn’t have enough speed with the car when we needed it.”

Perhaps the biggest and most pleasant surprise of the race after Enfinger’s win was the third-place finish by Clay Campbell – as in Clay Campbell, president of Martinsville Speedway.

Having just turned 54 on Feb. 7, Campbell was competing in just his fourth-ever ARCA race, driving a car owned by legendary NASCAR driver Ken Schrader.

“I couldn’t be happier being able to drive the Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet for Kenny Schrader,” Campbell said. “This is an icon and for me to drive this car and finish this well, I’m tickled to death.

“We were lucky enough to get through some of the skirmishes and that’s what we you’ve got to do. You’ve got to finish it and you’ve got to be there at the end to have a shot, and we did that.”

Campbell plans on racing again in April at Talladega. What about racing on his home track?

“I’ve got a day job there,” Campbell said with a laugh.

Rounding out the top-5 were Tom Hessert in fourth and Tyler Reddick in fifth.

Two names that received a lot of attention were youngsters Dylan Kwasniewski, who started from the pole and controlled much of the first half of the 85-lap race before fading to a 14th-place finish, as well as Chase Elliott (son of NASCAR legend Bill Elliott), who finished ninth.

BROWNSBURG, Indiana — John Force likes to use the word “advance” in discussing the long-term future of his four-car race team.

Friday morning, Force literally put “advance” into action, as he announced daughter Courtney Force’s Funny Car will be sponsored during the 2017 24-race NHRA schedule by Advance Auto Parts stores, beginning with the season-opening Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California. The deal is for multiple seasons.

“This is all about building John Force Racing for the future,” Force told MotorSportsTalk. “We had a great run with Traxxas, they’ll be staying in the sport, which is great. And now we’re partnering with Advance Auto Parts, which we’re very excited about.”

Advance Auto Parts replaces Traxxas, which produces radio-controlled race cars, and which had sponsored Courtney Force for the past five seasons. Traxxas will remain involved in the sport as sponsor of the Traxxas Shootout, a special race-within-a-race for both Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters contested during the annual U.S. Nationals in Brownsburg.

Advance Auto Parts, which has nearly 5,400 retail stores across the country, is no stranger to John Force Racing. The auto parts supplier sponsored John Force’s PEAK Chevrolet Camaro at several events during the 2016 season, including a victory in the NHRA Carolina Nationals, which kicked off the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

“The opportunity came to grow the deal and they were interested in Courtney so it was a perfect match,” John Force said. “I have done shows with Advance Auto Parts in the past and am looking forward to working with them again.”

Both John and Courtney Force will be featured in several upcoming advertising and marketing campaigns for the company.

The second season of “Dinner with Racers,” presented by Continental Tire, drops its first batch of episodes today.

The 28-episode season follows the first 28 episodes released last year. This year, podcast hosts and sports car veterans Sean Heckman and Ryan Eversley saddled up in a Honda Odyssey minivan for the cross-country tour, while riding on Continental Tires.

There’s some great guests and details. Here’s the full breakdown, plus a video, below:

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One year after the successful debut of the motorsport podcast series “Dinner with Racers,” the antics of Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman have returned for the binge release of “Season Two,” launching today. Following their 2015 debut that featured a month-long road trip recording 26 conversations “over dinner” with some of the most interesting characters in motorsports, the duo will launch another 28 recordings for their 2016 adventure. The second season will be released in two waves, with “Release One” launching the first 14 recordings immediately, and “Release Two” featuring an additional 14 recordings slated to release on December 16. All episodes can be found at www.dinnerwithracers.com or via iTunes.

Traveling for 40 days across 29 states, and covering 12,000 miles in 2016, the trip was made possible in part by the Honda Odyssey that was lent to the team by American Honda Motor Co., Inc, and most importantly thanks to a continuing title partnership with Continental Tire, who not only provided Cross Contact LX20 tires for the trip but covered the team’s expenses, as well as every meal.

Continuing the same theme from the debut season, #DWR2 follows a nearly identical format. A factory racing driver for Acura in the World Challenge series, Ryan Eversley makes up half of the hosting lineup, with motorsport marketing / creative content veteran Sean Heckman completing the duo. Using their unique blend of humor, insight, experience, as well as genuine love of the sport, Eversley and Heckman pick up right where they left off in Season One, exposing some of the most unique and entertaining stories from their variety of guests.

Meeting up with 28 different characters “over dinner,” listeners will exposed to a variety of personalities, everything from NASCAR and IndyCar star drivers, to some of the most respected engineers and mechanics, journalists, and broadcasters in the business. Stories cover everything from what it was like to be the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and then Daytona 500, to giving up a contract worth over $2mil just to be a “good guy,” to turning a satiric twitter account in to a full-time job, as well as enjoying life after nearly three decades in prison. Topics include everything from a transgender pig, to being given dead cat whiskers as a good luck charm, to having guns pulled in the middle of a race shop, and even buying a race track in the hopes of laundering money through it.

For Ryan Eversley, a chance to continue the series was a welcome one.

“I know it’s a cliché, but It truly is such an honor and a privilege to be able to do this,” stated Eversley. “Both Sean and I were truly blown away by the fan support from Season One, it’s honestly something we weren’t expecting. It really meant a lot to get so many nice comments, and that kept us very motivated for Season Two. I think our genuine love of the sport translates when people listen, because we really enjoy hearing the real back stories in what makes everyone so unique. This season did not disappoint us at all. This show lives and dies by its guests, and we couldn’t have been luckier to have such a great group who were not only engaging and interesting, but also incredibly gracious with their time. It’s an absolute blast doing this, and we really appreciate Continental for continuing their support, as well as Honda for giving us an incredibly comfortable car for such a long trip.”

For Sean Heckman, a similar sentiment is shared.

“What he said,” stated Heckman.

Additionally, the series will continue to support less exposed musical acts, with each episode promoting a variety of musicians and bands at the close of every episode.